1. Technical Field
This invention relates to page rotating devices and, more particularly, to a power-operated page rotating device for automatically turning a musicians page during a musical performance.
2. Prior Art
At a recital, and other music performances, it has often been seen that a musician interrupts playing, crouches forward, hurriedly turns the pages of a music book with his hands, and then resumes playing. Alternately, an assistant sitting behind a musician carefully gazes at the music book, and from time to time stands up and turns pages for the musician. Such page turning acts are primitive and troublesome, since no fumbling or mistake is permitted. Numerous inventions have been proposed as better solutions to those problems, but up until now, none are considered good enough in terms of versatility, inconspicuousness, and especially, in reliability.
One prior art example shows a page turning device that is placed on a music stand by a clip. A preformed set of a flat spring mechanism is fixed in an opening which is located in the center of the device. Each spring has a predetermined length; the first spring resting on the page turning device is the shortest. The second spring is longer by a predetermined length. The last spring is the longest. A narrow pocket is located at the bottom of each transparency. Each spring is connected to a transparency. To operate, each transparency is placed behind a page which is to be turned, and with the aid of a clip the transparency and the page are held together.
All the springs are arranged in the unit in the following way: The shortest spring turns the first page; the longest spring turns the last page. The movable unit is connected by a cable to a gear of a toothed gear wheel located in the pedal. Every pedal depression results in a predetermined pull of a cable around the gear, causing the movable unit to move to the right on the device and to release one pressed spring which returns to its initial position, causing a page to be turned. Unfortunately, this device is overly complicated in design and is rather heavy, making the transport thereof difficult. The above-noted example is also limited in the number of sheets that can be held therein by the number of springs that can be incorporated into the device.
Accordingly, a need remains for a power-operated page rotating device in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a device that is convenient and easy to use, is portable in nature, is versatile in its uses, and has stress-reducing and performance enhancing qualities. When a musician is required to perform lengthy pieces of music, the page rotating device provides him or her with a convenient, hands-free means of turning the individual pages of sheet music. By simply pressing the control, the performer can turn pages of sheet music without worrying that the sheets might fall from the stand or become rearranged. This eliminates the need for musicians to remove their hands from an instrument in order to turn pages and thus reduces performance anxiety during a show in which page turning is required. The device also eliminates the need to have another individual sitting or standing nearby for the sole purpose of turning pages.